


the stars watch over you

by psyraah



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 08:32:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10532748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psyraah/pseuds/psyraah
Summary: Shiro is bone weary, worn down, and battered, yet sleep evades him. But a gentle moment amongst new friends eases the constant disquiet in his heart, at least for now.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rednight16](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rednight16/gifts).



> Some kind of ALL OF BOM LIVE BECAUSE IM IN DENIAL AU
> 
> Also Red is the best enabler and so a Shiro piece for a Shiro person <3

Shiro had been—was—coping. Coping fine.

They fought. They laughed. They trained together.

Through it all, Shiro forced himself to hold it together, to eat properly, to support the others as best he could even though he felt as though he were breaking every day. But sleep—sleep was something he couldn’t force, no matter how much he tried.

So many reasons for it. So many _excuses_. Nightmares that tore him from fitful sleep, fear of closing his eyes against the dark of blood and death seared across the back of his eyelids like a horror show, the panicked feeling of the walls closing in on him in his room which felt too _small_.

When he had jolted awake from a state of semi-sleep earlier tonight, barely recalling why his mind had suddenly screamed _danger danger danger_ , he knew that sleep wouldn’t be coming.

 

( _“Time to fight, Champion.”_

_“No. I won’t go.”_

_“Move it.”_

_“No—”_

_A scream. His scream_.)

 

Shiro shook the image from his head, and completed another push up, concentrating on the burn in his tired muscles and the way his palms felt against the cold floor. After he’d woken, he’d moved to the training room, keeping the lights to a minimum. Some nights he would just stay in his room, so no one else would know he was up and about. But tonight he couldn’t manage to convince himself that if he unlocked the door, it would stay unlocked.

Stupid. Stupid, pathetic, irrational, he knew. But sometimes, there was a vast difference between what Shiro knew, and what his brain convinced him to believe.

When he heard the door behind him open, he managed not to flinch ( _there’s no one in the Castle who’ll hurt you_ ) but it was a near thing. Instead, he pushed himself back into a sitting position, twisting around to see two tall, inhuman figures standing in the doorway.

“Ah. Thace. Ulaz.”

The two of them approached, and Shiro stood, his knees protesting where they might not have, had he actually slept properly. Which hadn’t been for a month. Or two. However long they had been floating around out here.

“Shiro,” Ulaz greeted. “We thought that all humans ran on similar schedules. Why aren’t you resting along with the others?”

Shiro swallowed, hesitating. _You have nothing to be ashamed of_ , Keith had told him firmly a few weeks ago, but it was still incredibly hard to believe that this weakness wasn’t shameful. After all, the other Paladins didn’t know about _everything_ , and it was hard to believe that all of _that_ wasn’t shameful. “Nightmares,” he said eventually, voice wobbling despite his best efforts to sound casual.

Ulaz stopped frowning, and his expression softened. “Understandable,” he said quietly. And it was a relief not to have to…explain. The others would inevitably ask ‘of what?’ even if it was just in the curiosity of their expressions, and not so much in words. Shiro loved them for it—not pushing any further than he was comfortable sharing—he really did, but it also meant that they could never really comprehend, not until Shiro gave them the missing pieces.

But the members of the Blade…they all knew. They all knew about the fights and the shadows, the druids with their invasive needles and knives and devices, the way the Galra wove themselves into your mind and turned you inside out—

Shiro took in a shuddering breath, and stared at his Galra hand.

Even if they hadn’t been there—and Shiro still couldn’t remember whether any of them had, other than Ulaz—they would know. So he was relieved to see understanding and sympathy cross Ulaz’s face, and the same in Thace, in his own way in how he carefully schooled his face to blankness.

“We were just taking a walk, familiarising ourselves with the Castle,” Thace said. “Our cycles are considerably longer than human ones, so we won’t be retiring any time soon. Care to join us?”

Shiro hesitated, before nodding. The two of them waited patiently for him to walk over, and he did, though his feet felt like lead.

“The Princess was telling me that you Paladins have only been together a short while,” Thace said. Their steps echoed down the hallway, rhythmic under his soft voice. “That’s quite impressive. How long has it been since you met?”

Shiro blinked, looking over at Thace, before dropping his eyes to the floor again. “Um. A few months?” He tried to think, but time was odd out here, and his brain felt sluggish. “I’m…not sure.” Words were hard to form, and speaking was…pathetically difficult.

Perhaps sensing it, the two of them didn’t include him in any further conversation, bouncing back and forth off each other in the easy way that old friends did. Shiro let the sound slide over him in gentle waves. It was soothing. He found, in general, that the Blade were softly spoken, or perhaps it only seemed that way because of the time he spent living with six other enthusiastic personalities. This was…calming. At the very least, he didn’t have to feel the guilt of making Thace and Ulaz lose sleep, didn’t have to feel that crawling guilt whenever he forced one of the others to stay up because of him.

They eventually made their way to one of the lounge areas, and the three of them sat, Shiro between the two of them. It was comforting to have their presence next to him, and he leaned against the back of the couch, closing his eyes, their voices washing over him.

“There’ll need to be a few repairs to one of the pods; Leader scraped the side of one the other day upon his departure.”

Thace snorted. “Typical. He can’t drive to…uh, what’s the word?”

“For what?”

Thace said something foreign that Shiro didn’t quite understand, but…he recognised it. Galran. He’d heard it enough aboard Zarkon’s ship.

Banishing those thoughts, he instead concentrated on Ulaz’s thoughtful hum. “I’m not sure. Keep? Is that what is said?”

“No, that doesn’t sound right.” Thace sounded annoyed, making an odd, rapid clicking noise. “Make? No, that’s completely differently. Ah, it’s right there, I just can’t—”

“What word?” Shiro murmured, eyes still closed. “What are you trying to say?”

“What’s that expression? Leader is completely useless as a pilot,” Ulaz explained. “So he cannot pilot to _something_ his life.”

“Save,” Shiro supplied immediately, and the two others made triumphant noises immediately.

“That’s the one. To _save_ his life,” Thace said, sounding extremely proud.

Shiro opened his eyes, to see the two of them smiling gently at each other. “How do you say it in your language again?”

Ulaz blinked at him, yellow eyes wide, then spoke slowly. Shiro repeated it, the syllables tripping over his tongue. Ulaz repeated the word patiently, the emphasis just slightly different, and this time when Shiro spoke, he looked pleased. “That’s correct.”

Shiro smiled, and leaned back to close his eyes again. The ship hummed gently in the quiet, before Thace made some other comment about an asteroid field that they’d passed earlier. Content to just listen, Shiro let himself drift, grounding himself in the comforting weight of the couch against his back, and the voices of his friends murmured in the dim light of the room.

Sleep wouldn’t come so easily, but at least now, amongst friends, he could find some peace.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not super satisfied with this, and writing is evading me right now, so feedback would be wonderful :) Also I figured heck it, all content is good content, so I'll post this regardless.
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/starchydreams/status/848777675392950272) | [Tumblr](http://shiroganedefencesquad.tumblr.com/post/159142331484/the-stars-watch-over-you-for-rednight16-rating-g)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Home You Make](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700442) by [rednight16](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rednight16/pseuds/rednight16)




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